Scavello easily defeats Aurand in 40th Senate race

Republican Rep. Mario Scavello won his bid for higher office Tuesday after an expensive and increasingly combative race against Democrat Mark Aurand.

Scavello, a sitting representative, was the closest thing to an incumbent in the district, which covers parts of Monroe and Northampton counties, setting up an uphill battle for Aurand to match Scavello's name recognition and war chest.

A polite hostility ran through the campaigns as a low rumble that erupted occasionally in bizarre episodes that some said reflected Scavello's aggressive style.

The tension intensified in the past few weeks as Scavello dropped out of a candidate forum in protest of Aurand's debate tactics and then on Friday tailed a 74-year-old Aurand backer he's accused of stealing campaign signs for 10 miles through the Poconos.

None of that proved problematic for the well-known conservative from the north side of Blue Mountain, a former mayor of Mount Pocono and former chairman of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners.

Scavello held onto an early 3:2 lead throughout the night, winning in both his home county and Aurand's. Aurand won Monroe but lost Northampton County in the three-way Democratic primary. By 10:30 p.m., Scavello had more than 31,000 votes to Aurand's roughly 21,000, with 65 percent of precincts reporting.

Scavello hung up when reached for comment Tuesday night.

Aurand's campaign manager, Daniel McNamara, said Aurand, an unknown, first-time candidate, was the dark horse in a challenging midterm race.

"One remarkable thing about this campaign is the way it took everything by storm, from winning the primary to the margins we've been able to run up even in an off-year election," McNamara said.

The loss marks a setback for Democrats who had hoped gaining ground in the new 40th Senate District would help win them the Senate majority.

The seat was created during post-Census political remapping that moved the 40th District from western Pennsylvania to the Lehigh Valley and Poconos. It covers much of Northampton County north of Route 22, including the Nazareth area and Slate Belt, as well as eastern Monroe County.

While Democrats account for 45 percent of the district's 174,045 registered voters, and Republicans 37 percent, voters both south and north of the Blue Mountain have elected Republicans to the state House in recent elections, including Scavello in Monroe every two years since 2002.

With the Senate up for grabs and few competitive races, Democratic party leadership labeled the district competitive and has been flooding the race against Scavello.

More than $900,000 in contributions from the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee neutralized Scavello's early money advantage and fueled TV advertisements pounding him on gas taxes and women's health issues.

The cost of the election topped $2 million.

Democrats had little chance of taking control of the Senate if they can't pick up this seat, said G. Terry Madonna, a Franklin & Marshall College pollster and political science professor.

Scavello took shots at Aurand, partner in the Allentown law firm Davidson & McCarthy, for identifying himself as a small business owner in TV ads. He repeatedly accused the Democrat of dodging questions about what taxes he would raise to restore education or fund infrastructure improvements.

He cited that evasiveness in dropping out of a Monroe County League of Women Voter's forum.

Aurand went anyway, seizing on Scavello's absence to rally voters.

Scavello was irate discussing an Aurand TV ad accusing him of co-sponsoring a controversial bill that would require women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound to verify the age of the fetus and for responding to a questionnaire that he opposes abortion "in all circumstances."

He said ad ignored that he had dropped his name from the bill and had clarified his position on abortion to make exceptions for cases of rape, incest and the health of the mother. He charged the ad as responsible for threatening phone calls made to his office and staffers.

Aurand, of Lower Nazareth Township, hounded Scavello on the Republicans' legislative record, portraying him as Corbett's partner in corporate and banking tax cuts and higher gas taxes. In a familiar refrain, he accused Scavello of voting to cut $1 billion in education funding.

Scavello is a strong supporter of efforts to repeal school property taxes, and thinks support is building in the legislature for a bill that would replace that funding stream with sales and personal income taxes.

He's expressed support for raising the minimum wage, while excluding first-time teenaged workers, and points to the than $1 billion in corporate tax cuts, namely through the ongoing phase-out of the state's capital stock and franchise tax, as a catalyst to business growth.